Austrian Grand Prix: Nico Rosberg grabs third victory of the season at the Red Bull Ring

Nico Rosberg took his third victory of the season at the Red Bull Ring in Austria(Getty)

Nico Rosberg cruised to his third victory of the season and his second consecutive win in Austria, putting big pressure on teammate Lewis Hamilton for the F1 Drivers' World Championship

The race started in dramatic fashion as Kimi Raikkonen and Fernando Alonso had a massive collision on lap 1 after the Finn lost traction coming out of a corner. The safety car was deployed for seven laps, after which Rosberg increased the lead on his teammate and continued to do so until the end of the race, taking a comfortable victory.

With Raikkonen out, it was left to Sebastian Vettel to take the challenge to the Mercedes cars, but their pace was too good for the Ferrari. Vettel looked comfortable in third place until a botched pit stop allowed Felipe Massa, who was in fourth, to jump ahead, a position he kept until the end of the race despite late pressure from the German.

It was Massa's first podium of the season, and it turned out to be a good day for the Williams team after Valtteri Bottas managed a fifth place finish after a race-long battle with Nico Hulkenberg, who had to settle for sixth, a great week for the Force India driver following his victory at the Le Mans 24-hour race.

Pastor Maldonado managed to finish two races in a row for the first time this season, repeating his seventh place from Canada at the Red Bull Ring. Toro Rosso's Max Verstappen continues his impressive debut season with an eighth place ahead of Sergio Perez and Daniel Ricciardo, who rounded out the top ten.

It was a miserable day for the McLAren-Honda team, with Alonso crashing out on the opening lap and Jenson Button retiring on lap 8.

Despite some suggestions that Ferrari had the pace to challenge the Mercedes cars in the race, the Silver Arrows of Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg seemed to have a big advantage over the rest of the field on the day. It will take a mammoth task for the rest of the grid to change the pecking order at the top.